Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

JACKSON – When Abriella Lykins parents took her on a trip to Vietnam in 2007, she saw poverty on levels she had never seen before. This inspired the now 16-year-old to start an organization called Change for Love.

"I started Change for Love when I was about 14, my sister was 8," Lykins said.

Lykins and her younger sister, Arianna, were both adopted from Vietnam by Stephanie and Ted Lykins. Their mother says the sisters started the organization while the family was living in Arizona, following the visit to Vietnam.

Lykins began working with her church to collect spare change for the organization, something she continues now that her family has returned to Ohio.

"She has overcome hearing and speech issues, but she has a heart of gold and wants to help people. Her and her sister have accomplished so much, I'm so proud," Stephanie Lykins said.

Robie Day, pastor at Grace Brethren Chapel in Piketon, said he wanted the church to support Abriella and the organization and have been working together on multiple projects.

"She is one of the most selfless, humble young women I've ever met," Day said.

Grace Brethren Chapel holds what they call Change for Love Sundays, where the congregation gives their spare change to the organization. The money collected is then used for projects that help people in the community and around the world have access to clean water and basic necessities.

Change for Love has been able to supply food, clothing, and hygiene kits to the homeless, and provided 40,000 gallons of clean drinking water in the Philippines, as well as a medical/dental clinic, according to the Grace Brethren Chapel website.

The charity organization is now hoping to branch out even more into Pike County. In a partnership with the Garnet A. Wilson Library, Change for Love will assist in distributing and supplementing the library's summer food program that allows children to get free lunches throughout the summer.

"There are so many kids that don't have a hot meal after school is out so I thought, why don't we do something to help them that's healthy. And is something they can take home," Abriella said.

Change for Love will begin passing out snacks and helping with the free lunch program at the library on Tuesday, but this is not Lykins' only summer outreach. She also plans to ask local companies to donate shoes for children in need of a new pair before returning to school in the fall.

"We can all make a difference in someone's life," Lykins writes in her letter to companies. "It only takes believing that there are people in this world who truly care about their fellow man."